Unique scavenger hunt in village

Friday

Aug 4, 2017 at 7:00 AM

It could fairly be described an Easter-egg search, Pokémon Go and scavenger hunt rolled into one.

By Jef Rietsma | Journal Correspondent

It could fairly be described an Easter-egg search, Pokémon Go and scavenger hunt rolled into one.Coinciding with this week’s 80th Abbott’s Magic Get-Together, a search for “magical” hidden rocks has kids and adults covering all areas of the village.According to the Facebook page “Colon Magic Rocks,” there actually are two rock groups — “Colon Magic Rocks” and “Colon, MI Rocks.”Colon Magic Rocks all feature magic and magic-related themes, as well as logos from Colon businesses. The finder of a commerce rock is entitled to a discount or freebie.Rocks from Colon, MI Rocks typically are painted with smiley faces, animals and other non-magic illustrations.There are about 275 rocks in the Colon Magic Rocks collection. They were painted and hidden by Penny Munson Conklin of Constantine. Her husband’s parents were part of the “Amazing Conklin Family” group of magicians.She said the idea extended from a similar rock-painting hobby they do for White Pigeon, Constantine and Three Rivers.“We just thought it would be fun to shift gears and focus on Colon and magic, so we had some rocks leftover that I had saved from another project, set a fan out in the garage and would spend evenings painting them,” she said. “There’s seven of us who worked on these and it’s been a lot of fun.”Actually, Conklin said, it has been as much fun looking at posts on Facebook. About 200 were hidden Tuesday evening and by the time they returned to Constantine, two girls had posted pictures with about 20 rocks that each found.Conklin thought it was late enough in the evening that the rocks would have been left undisturbed.“I’m just glad they posted it on Facebook so everybody could see the rocks” she added. “We have another 50 or so left to hide yet, some of them will probably be more sought after than others. One in particular is a really nice image of the front of Abbott’s.”About 100 paintings in all feature past and present magicians. Conklin said many are in Colon this week and attempting to secure their rock — the magicians’ equivalent of a baseball card — through bartering and negotiating.Many of the rocks came from a Lake Michigan beach, the others were purchased in a five-gallon bucket from Arnett’s landscape in Constantine.Conklin said she is debating whether to do Colon Magic Rocks next year. With this being the 80th year of the Get-Together, she said it is, indeed a special occasion.“Yes, we’ll have to think about it. Does it lose its novelty if we do it two years in a row? Do we wait until the 85th? Do we just not do it at all? We certainly will have the time, all winter, if we want to paint more,” she said. “And maybe we’ll just do fewer next year and make them harder to find? Who knows?”She said the Colon Magic Rocks can be authenticated not only because of the magic-theme illustration, but there is a strip of paper on the back with instructions about posting a photo on social media platforms.Although the instructions urge people who find the rocks to take a photo then re-hide them, understandably, many are being kept as one-of-a-kind, free souvenirs from a great St. Joseph County tradition. Again, Conklin said it’s OK to keep the rocks but she would like people to post photos and indicate they plan to keep them to save someone else the trouble of a fruitless search for that rock specifically.“We’ll probably never know if all 275 were found, whether it was from when we hid them or if they were re-hidden by someone else,” she said. “It’ll be interesting to know if some are found next spring in some random place.”The rocks are all over the village in public places. Conklin said she watched Thursday morning someone’s pickup nearly get rear-ended on the East State Street bridge because the driver stopped his vehicle in the lane of traffic, got out and claimed a rock he spotted on the sidewalk.Conklin laughed at the suggestion her family has perhaps reinvigorated the pet-rock fad from the 1970s.“You know, I hadn’t even thought about that but, I guess maybe in a way we have,” she said.Participating business providing a discount or freebie are: Curly’s, Nibbles, M&M Grill, Five Star Pizza, Dawn & Phil’s, Gilbert’s Shell and Colon Marathon.

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